Hong Kong Dragons Taekwondo

I visited this dojang again in Easter as my friend insisted some changes had been made to the place.

Aliveness: There are two class types offered now- a sparring session known as 'free-fight' and a normal session known as "adult" or "children" (depending on which age group attends that allocated time period).

"Free-fight" is straight up World Taekwondo Federation (WTF) styled sparring which continues for the entire sessions, lest for some warm ups at the start of the lesson. "Adult/children" on the other hand has around fifteen minutes of warm up followed by poomsae and kicking at various targets (usually paddles). Both type of classes has a five minutes long break in between.

I could get through "adult" classes without sweating- rather, with the air conditioning on during spring, it can actually get rather chilly standing there in my dobok. "Free-fight" on the other hand is more taxing but nothing to the point of sparring in a boxing lessons or randori in judo (as most matches involve bouncing on one's feet for an extended period of time before any attack is made by either side). As the lessons are charged seperately (there is no monthly plan) with the normal classes being more common (there is only one "free fight" class whilst normal classes run six days a week), the aliveness score would hence be 1 (for normal class) + 6 (for sparring class) divided by 2 to yield an average score of 3.5. As there is no decimal point avaliable, it would be a 3 due to the frequency of the sessions avaliable (as previously explained).

Equipment:
The equipment has been used for a year or two. They are slightly worn out but nothing too shabby and accepetable for further usage. I would give it a 6.

Gym size:
Pretty big full time gym in the inner suburbs of Hong Kong. Around the size of three to four garages, hence the score of 7.

Instructor/student:
Around two blackbelts to every twenty five students. The head instructor teaches just about every lesson, therefore a 6.

Atmosphere/attitude: The people there are normally nice and friendly. They are happy to stay late for a couple of minutes to teach you free of charge (both students and instructors) if you are confused with the moves. This is the best thing about the dojang, in my opinion and I'll give it an 8.

Striking: 5. Official WTF poomsae taught which is only useful in a forms competition or a WTF sanctioned event.